I last time I saw PJ Geyer, recently appointed winemaker at Wellington stellar cellar Mont du Toit, was in 2002 at Alain Mouiex’s brave Ingwe estate in hedonism’s hidden corner in Somerset West. Alain was an aeolian pioneer battling wind to make austere, mineral-rich wines in a St. Emilion style that local consumers failed to “get.” This was several years before Paul Boutinot established Waterkloof, Roger Gabb came to Journey’s End or Johann Innerhofer opened his French/Italian version of culinary heaven with a budget international wine list at Capelands. PJ left Ingwe at the end of 2009 – the grapes were then being sold to Waterkloof, the wines discounted by Johan Wegner at Get Wine and now it looks like the vineyards themselves will soon disappear under urban sprawl as another retirement community or suburban arrangement of little boxes made of ticky tacky.

Given that PJ was supplying grapes to biodynamic Waterkloof, it was fitting that the best sculpture at the Everard Read Gallery, venue for tasting of the various components of PJ’s Mont du Toit wines last night, was a sheep eating a trout. Which reminded me of the Buddha of Biodynamism, Nicolas Joly, explaining how his friend, an Austrian vet, cured a cow by forcing it to eat a live trout. In the biodynamic world, a cow is an inward process and hence linked to water and we all know what fish do in water.

Inadvertently breaking the rules, we started at the vertical tasting component of the showcase and the oldest two blends were total stunners. 1999 Mont du Toit is a Bordeaux doppelganger with elegance, austerity and finesse while 2000 is a New World triumph with rich opulent fruit and great length. Decanter’s favourite, the 2001, was missing and the 2002 was a victim of vintage – thin and etiolated. The 2003 was earthy and the 2004 and 2005 were also AWOL. The best wine of all, IMHO, was the 2003 Le Sommet which needed a little agitation to disrobe as a stunning, voluptuous showgirl.

But the real eye opener of the evening was the 2009 Shiraz, one of the traditional components of the Mont du Toit blend but now being bottled solo. Modestly priced at R65, it is a sweetly fruited spicy red currant stunner with more X-factor than a whole Sun Dome full of Simon Cowells. Terrific and I can’t wait for it to wipe the floor with those toasty coffee/mocha travesties of terroir that rely on wood instead of Wellington to seduce the palate.

Related posts:

1. Makes me sick at the Spectator Simon Hoggart, convener of the Spectator magazine wine club, seems...
2. Systembolaget loves SA Shiraz Calling your liquor monopoly “Company of Systems” – Systembolaget –...
3. The Rompel Report on the most expensive evening of the year For many wine nuts the annual Reciprocal wine tasting is...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.